Dance With the Devil
by MageofWind
Summary: An odd twist to how an imaginary character could end up in the real world. A troupe of three travel across dimensions following a foe. Rating may rise later on.
1. The beginning

_ Author's Comments: Mmkay, so, if you don't like fics where the game characters come into the real world, don't bother reading this, though there are some funny twists in it to make it seem at least a bit more believable than some out there. This story is based loosely just a little after the Dirge of Cerebus game (it's what inspired me to make this fanfic, so sue me… actually, don't o.O) and there are so many arguments about the different characters that no matter how much I searched I couldn't find solid evidence for several things. _

_ First: Vincent is single, obviously. Instead of dealing with Shelke and Yuffie (both obvious contenders in his love campaign) I'm just going to explain how they are NOT in the picture now. _

_ Shelke reminds Vincent too much of Lucrecia, and not enough to actually be her. He still loves Lucrecia, so he was initially attracted to both Shelke and Shalua (mainly Shalua, I'll bet) because they reminded him so much of his lost love. But Shalua died, so that took her out of the picture, and Shelke just seems too young for him – even if her real age is totally different from her physical age. _

_ I think he considers Shelke as more of a sibling or daughter-figure than anything, seeing as she has the same non-aging syndrome that he does, looks so young, and needs someone to take care of her since her older sister died and she's learning how to live life again. He was more than likely undeniably intrigued by her at first, since she has so many mannerisms of Lucrecia, but after a time he realized that they were totally different people, and her mannerisms just brought back painful memories after a time. So there goes that relationship in this story – haha!_

_ And Yuffie… ehh, I just don't think she'd be good for him. Too bubbly. And there is a difference between bubbly and animated._

_ Also, there are only the three FF7 characters in this story because I kinda felt like sticking to the original battle team system (only three people!) and Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent were my main party when it was too dangerous to stick Red XIII in (like when I need a healer, Red XIII ROCKS otherwise)._

_ My last comment – Sarah is loosely based on me, since I feel like I need a fantasy once and a while too. Actually, she's almost exactly like me. Though I technically have no clue what I'd do in situations like the ones she's put into, I'd bet I'd do something of the same. _

_ Wait, THIS is my last comment! Okay, for reasons of my own, I think there IS living flesh underneath that gauntlet, but I don't think he can take it off (like, one of those rings that you put on, then gained weight, and now even soap won't get it over your knuckle sorta thing). I believe it was put on because of some accident with his arm perhaps, that disfigured it or something, and the arm itself probably didn't work as well as it should, and the prosthetic over the real flesh keeps it in working condition. Also I'd bet it was painful to remove, so he just never does. So, the gauntlet is only semi-prosthetic, but cannot be removed. So there! It all works out._

_ And now, I will leave you to the tale of…_

**Dance with the Devil**

Sarah Owens was a girl that always had her head lost in the clouds, imagining the grand adventures and fairy tales that people can only read about. She had an awesome imagination. She could get lost in her own thoughts for hours, and often did, which sometimes caused her to miss important information in school or bump into passerby on the sidewalks – her friends refused to let her drive because of this, too. Or at least, what friends she had. The day dreamer often missed out on chances to make friends, even if she was a kind hearted girl, because she was too quiet; only her old high school friends and a few others actually knew her animated personality as she got comfortable with them.

Today was not a day for daydreaming, but she did it anyway.

She pulled her collar up around her chin, keeping the frigid wind at bay. Winter didn't used to be this harsh in Oregon. Even though it was so close to spring, the icy wind and rain caused traffic to be deadly, since no one knew how to drive in icy weather. This was Oregon, for heaven's sake!

"Sarah!" a voice from behind her snapped her out of her thoughts as she headed toward the parking garage a few blocks away from her school. "Wait for me!"

"Hmm?" Sarah murmured as she turned around to see who disrupted her thoughts, and smiled when she recognized him, "Oh, hullo Colin."

He caught up to her once she stopped, reaching out to brush a strand of her dark reddish brown hair out of her face. It was cropped short and layered in the back, but the front was long, so it always fell into her face, and seeing as Colin was one of her closest friends, he took the liberty often enough to brush it out of her face for her. "Did you forget that I was staying at your place today?"

"What? Oh! Sorry. Guess I kinda spaced it." She said sheepishly, but returned the amused grin he gave her. "Well, I'm heading to the parking garage now, care to follow me?"

"Dur." He replied, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and steering her toward the parking lot. "You're never all the way here, are you?" he asked her teasingly, prodding her side to get her attention – and making her jump. She was extremely ticklish.

"Fantasy is better than reality most of the time. No stupid people there." She gave him a look, causing him to grin again, sticking his tongue out at her.

"Gimme the keys, I'm driving today."

"Aww…"

§§§§§§

The blonde haired young man, looking to be in his early or mid-twenties, crouched at the edge of a cliff face, looking down at the valley and large buildings far below them. He was fairly tall, well muscled, wearing a tight black suit, dark leather armor over his chest and as a belt, as well as a shoulder pad over his left shoulder as armor, cloth draping from that to cover his arm. An overly large sword was strapped to his back. His blue eyes were intense, as he watched the scene below. Behind him stood two others, a man and a woman, one leaning against another outcropping of boulders and the other crouching just behind and to the left of the blonde.

The man leaning on the ledge and against the rock wall was tall, a crimson mantle draping over his form, the cloak draping out behind him, the end tattered and ripped as a cloak that had been worn for a very long time. His hair was a tangled mess of black locks, untamable, only hampered from falling entirely into his face by the red bandana that he had around his head. His face was hidden mostly by the turned up collar of the cloak and mantle, revealing only blood red eyes looking forlornly toward the ground, lost in his own thoughts. His arms were crossed underneath the mantle, hiding the clawed gauntlet on his left hand.

The third, and only woman in the group, leaned over Cloud's shoulder, following the blonde's gaze to the buildings below. She wore a black vest over a tight white tank top, a black skirt with a short front and long back protected her legs. Her hair was a very dark auburn color, nearly black, and her eyes were a soft brown.

None of them spoke for some time,

"So are we going in or what?" Tifa spoke finally, breaking the silence.

"Yeah…" replied the blonde Avalanche member, "I'm thinking the best way to get in would be through the side door there." He said softly, pointing toward the left side of the building. Along that side were many crates, as if the occupants of the building hadn't finished moving everything in. This left many hiding places, though that area was also more heavily guarded, but not by much. The building itself was just a large warehouse looking thing, few windows, many of those boarded up.

"Sounds good. Shall we be heading out then?" The crimson mantled gunslinger spoke then, straightening, and walked toward the two by the edge, not near enough to be seen by guards, but enough to see the goings on as well. He had opened up a little since the incident in which Chaos left his body, but even now he was still the quiet man in red they always knew. During missions with Cloud or the others he seemed to drop back into his old self, or when he was put on the spot.

"Mmhmm." Cloud said, backing away towards where Vincent stood, Tifa following close behind. "If we come up from the South, it should give us a clear shot. Let's go."

_A/N: A short beginning, but that's because I have too much written already, and this was the only clear break. Comment if you like it! This being my first fanfic (Actually, second.. but the old Vampire Hunter D one I deleted from an old account because it was before I figured out how to make chapters... Actually, I'm still worried about the chaper thing, but I'm hoping that I can figure it out.) I want constructive criticism, if there's something wrong with the story, PLEASE tell me. No flames though. They just sort of prove how stupid you are. Flames will be cooked and offered to Vincent for dinner. Heard he liked them with spaghetti X3 _


	2. Namani

_A/N: Another chapter. If they're too short just lemme know. Or too long. I've just been writing, and break the sections into still understandable sections._

_Another side note, I totally spaced the copywrite issue, and so I will address it now, even though everyone should KNOW who it belongs to. FF7 and all games related to it are owned by Square Soft – oh, wait, it's Square-Enix now, isn't it? Well, yeah, they own it. I own the original characters like Namani (crazed psycho, pulled him from one of my original ideas for a story to serve as a sufficient evil dude), Sarah, Colin, and anyone else that you don't recognize as final fantasy characters and crap. Though some of the others are loosely based on people in real life. Though… I do WISH I owned Vincent… and Reno… And Sephiroth… Yeah. -drools-_

_At this point Vincent would walk up and offer me a napkin.. Thank you, Vincie._

_Also, this story is named after Breaking Benjamin's song, "Dance with the Devil" which just seemed to remind me so much of Vincent… most of their songs to. And Gackt's, which is prolly why they did the music for his game._

_ §§§§  
_

Sarah sat in the passenger seat, her feet on the dash board to bring her knees up as a makeshift table for her drawing pad. She doodled as Colin drove down the highway toward her home on the edge of Portland. It really was a lovely place to live, especially for an artist. It was on a dead end street, right where neighborhoods began turning into country, though she had no real land on her property, other than a small backyard and an even tinier yard in the front with a driveway and garage. The house was about as small, just enough for two smallish bedrooms, one bathroom, a good sized living room, and a small kitchen.

The walls were fitting for an artist, too, since Sarah had painted them all. The home was owned by her best friend's (Colin's) father, who said as long as she didn't wreck the place she could do whatever she wanted to it. The rent was very low, for how nice the place was, and as long as she kept a schedule at getting payments in to him or to tell him she didn't have the cash that month, he let rent slide much of the time. It was the perfect home for a starving artist.

As they pulled off the highway and towards the Artsy House (This is what Sarah calls it, don't ask why…) Colin took a moment to glance at her, "What're you drawing?"

"Another character design."

"Why does he look like that one dude in your game?"

"Because he kinda is… I guess. I just sorta started drawing him. Or what I started drawing just sorta turned into him. I never have control over what I draw, you should know that by now."

"You and your creepy way of saying that the pictures have minds of their own." Colin retorted, amused, keeping his eyes on the road. "We're almost to your house."

"Right." She said, closing the drawing pad and sticking it and the pencil in the backpack on the car floor in front of her. The car was more than a little cramped, since she usually forgot to clean it, but it was mainly filled with empty boxes from her move into the Artsy House five months before. The car itself was a 1996 Toyota Camry, which is the car of the gods, and the awesome forest green color just made it even awesomer - so awesome that it made a new word! She got it from her own father, who sold it to her for just a few hundred dollars.

As they pulled into the driveway she unbuckled her belt, opening the door and popping out of the car even before it came to a stop. Colin called out when she did this, only slightly aggravated, and finished parking the car before climbing out as well, locking the car and following her into the house.

The living-room was messy, as usual, but not in a dirty sense, as much as a chaotic sense. Piles of books on the coffee table and the floor around it – it was obvious that she sat on the couch and read often. A laptop sat on top of one pile of books. The floor was for the most part clean, since most everything was stuffed on the book shelves lining the walls. A medium-smallish sized TV sat in one corner. There was even a used drawing pad resting on top of it.

"Do you EVER clean this place?" Colin asked. He'd been there a week before, and nothing ever changed in the house.

"Of course. I vacuum the floors and clean the litter boxes and do the laundry." She replied, kneeling down to hug one of the cats that ran up to greet her. She had two, ultra lover-bugging, annoyingly sweet felines in the house. One even drooled, if you can imagine that. One a gift from her mother, the other from a breeder that she knew.

"What about dishes?"

"What dishes?"

It was true, all the dishes in the house were hardly ever used, since she usually just made frozen dinners and sandwiches, both of which either had their own trays or could be eaten on a napkin. She went through a lot of napkins.

"You need to learn how to cook."

"But if I did that, I might get better than you, and then I wouldn't be able to enjoy your awesome cooking when you visited!" she replied, throwing her arms around his shoulders, her backpack swinging around and hitting his back. "Let's play a game!"

"What about homework?"

"What's homework?" said the queen of procrastination. It was a miracle she got any A's in her classes – but then again, they were mostly all art classes, so that was no surprise. Going to a university of art can be a good thing, even if it did drain all your paychecks and recourses on loans. "I'll make the daiquiris, and you can pick the game you want to play."

It was a weekly ritual for them, having a strawberry daiquiri as they played any number of two-player games on her Playstation. It was the only alcoholic drink she could stand, even the sweetest of wines made her gag. Though it was fun on her twenty-first birthday when Colin and his friends took her to a bar and bought her one of each drink so she could pick her favorite. The boys finished almost every one of her drinks, except for the daiquiris.

After a few moments of preparation the two friends settled down in front of the TV, turned on the Playstation, and in a random mood that they both shared, they took turns playing scenes in 'Dirge of Cerebus', trying to get better scores than the other.

§§§§

"Ready?" Cloud looked back to his two companions for a moment.

"Ready."

"…"

"Right, let's go." The three took off, keeping low to the ground to attract as little attention as possible. They weaved in and out of the maze of crates to avoid guards.

Or at least they tried to avoid them.

One young man stepped right into their path, wearing a black jacket and pants to blend into the night. He barely had a moment to open his mouth and call out a warning to his comrades before the red-mantled gunslinger zipped forward, his clawed gauntlet swinging out to catch the man across the throat. A gun would have been too loud, not that it mattered as the chopped off call for help had already put the other guards on alert. The party could hear the bustling of boots on dirt as they ran to their general area. Voices could be heard as well.

"Damn, well there goes our cover. Quick thinking, though, Vincent." Cloud murmured, and then motioned for them to follow, drawing his overly huge sword from behind his back as he ran toward the warehouse as fast as he could, the other two following after.

Gunshots rang out quickly enough, the dirt around the comrades' feet spurting up clouds of dust as the bullets missed. Vincent drew his gun out, taking quick aim and making quick work of several targets, Cloud rushing forward to take care of opposition there.

It didn't take long to make it to the side door. Tifa reached it first, kicking it open and running in with Cloud and Vincent close behind.

It was dark, the only light coming from the uncovered windows high above them. Inside was a maze of crates as well – it was obvious that the people there hadn't moved in too long ago. Or else they liked the maze. After running out of range of the doorway, as the guards didn't follow them, they slowed down to take in their surroundings.

"Ah, so kind of you to join me!" a voice rang out, echoing throughout the entire building. Upon hearing the voice, the party ran down the rest of the passage, toward the sound.

The passage they took brought them to an open space, thick cords and covered wires littering the floor, all leading away and toward a large circular object in the center of the room (it looks like a mini-stargate!), built onto a platform. The round gate was silent, only slightly glowing runes along the cold metal it was made of showed any life. In front of it stood a tall man, bright red hair falling into his smooth face. His eyes watched Cloud and the others amusedly, his thin lips parting in a snide grin. A dark blue duster dragged on the ground behind him as he turned to look at them, on his right hand a large metal brace, a screen on the top was glowing the same cold blue as the runes on the round gate.

"So you're Namani…" Cloud said, readying his blade.

"Yes, I am Namani. I am touched that you know my name. I haven't even done anything memorable yet!" the redheaded madman laughed.

"Destroying half of Kalm isn't memorable enough for you?" Tifa spat out angrily, stepping forward. Her fists were raised, poised for attack. "All those people you killed was nothing?!"

"Oh, they aren't dead yet. Nothing dies. To truly murder someone you have to destroy their very souls. Though as I said… Yet." He gestured toward the round gate behind him, "You see, I only freed their souls from their bodies, for I need the energy to power my machine." He said calmly. "Human souls rejoining with the Lifestream create an awesome amount of power. If you have a way of containing the souls so that their re-entry is entirely controlled could power cities for centuries."

After the man's small speech there was a moment of silence as the three stared at him in shock. Finally, Tifa spoke again, "But you don't have to kill people."

"Oh, quite the contrary, in order to control the exact moment the soul leaves the body the best way to take it is by force, thus making it necessary to take their soul before their time."

"That's just… sick." She said, scowling. "How can you do that and not feel any remorse?"

"Easily! I'm only decreasing the surplus population of fools, and providing for the greater good. Though I do have to admit that the greater good isn't my only wish here." He said plainly, "You see, this is an inter-dimensional gateway." He gestured to the portal behind him again. "There is nothing on this petty planet that could power it, other than the harvesting of human souls."

"Inter-what?" Cloud asked, just a little confused.

"An Inter-dimensional gateway, a… gate between different worlds. Between universes." Vincent spoke, his face was blank, but his voice rang with disgust and a small amount of fascination as well.

"My, aren't you a smart one." Namani waggled a finger at the gunslinger, eyeing the three barrels of the gun pointed at him with curiosity before turning back toward Cloud. "Do you get it now, my boy?"

The blond didn't respond, instead raising his sword again and tensing, then springing toward the mad scientist. Vincent and Tifa quickly followed, the gunslinger firing a shot from his gun as Tifa ran up to face him with her martial arts.

"Ah, and so you wish to stop me!" Namani had his wrist raised, the bullet ricocheting off an invisible shield that burned bright blue for a moment after it hit. "You'll have to catch me first." He said, and pressed a button on the device on his wrist, the gate behind him coming to life. The runes along the sides brightened, and a watery-mist like substance burst from the center, swirling insanely with every color the mind could possible imagine and then some, until they finally blended together to make that sickly white-blue light that alien abductees always say they see before they get anally probed.

Just as Cloud brought his sword down on the scientist, he stepped back into the portal, vanishing completely. "Damn!"

"Should we follow him?" Tifa asked, eyeing the eerie swirling blue light. The portal wasn't closed yet.

"He'll be back, or he'll wreck another planet in his madness." Cloud replied, replacing the large sword to his back again. Vincent nodded, and strode forward and into the portal, not showing any hesitation. Cloud and Tifa quickly followed, though at a bit more restrained pace than the red-mantled man.


	3. Falling Through Ceilings

"Damn! How'd you get so good?" Colin exclaimed, watching as Sarah's scores for one of the final chapters in the Dirge counted up her points.

"Practice." She said simply. She normally was terrible at videogames. In fact, this was the first shooting game she actually enjoyed, thus she ended up playing so much that she practically memorized everything that could happen. She grinned into her Daiquiri as she saw that she got an A score. She really did enjoy being good at something other than drawing.

"Holy crapula. Where'd my sucky gamer friend go? She turned good!" he kidded, prodding her side. The prodding caused her to jump, as usual, and she fumbled her drink, letting it fall to the floor where the Playstation was.

With a sickening crack (that's what you get when you have cheap glass on cheap plastic.) the glass shattered against the playstation, its contents emptying all over the machinery. Sarah could only squeak and stare sadly as her beloved machine sparked, sizzled, and died, the TV screen going haywire one moment as the disc was ruined, then finally settling to static.

Colin and Sarah sat there for a moment more before finally the boy spoke, "…Oops…"

"My Playstation!! My Baby!" she cried, sliding off her stool to kneel beside the machine. She grabbed the nearest bit of cloth, which just so happened to be Colin's jacket, and began wiping at the small game box.

"Hey, my coat!"

"My game!" she retorted, then paused, sending an ironic and amused glance his way, "Funny, you would have expected something to happen, eh?"

"…You read too many fanfictions, girl." He replied, and went into the kitchen to grab a towel.

Sarah opened the Playstation, pulling out the game and wiping it off carefully with a paper towel. "Think this still works…?" she asked no one in particular.

Colin knelt over her to look at the CD, "Well, there's no scratches or stains or anything. It should be okay. I'll bring my old Playstation over next time I come, since I was technically the one who broke yours."

"Thanks, Colin."

The pain was excruciating, traveling between dimensions. The vacuum of space wanted all your molecules to spread away from you, to maintain balance in the universe, but the wormhole that they traveled through counterbalanced that with extreme pressure, keeping you whole and breaking you to pieces at the same time. Vincent doubled over as everything went dark and bright at the same time, disorienting all thought and perception of time and space and reality itself.

He knew Cloud and Tifa followed him, but there was no awareness of them or Namani. He was alone.

Alone…

§

"I should probably be heading home now. Care to drive me to the bus stop?" Colin asked her, "Or let me drive to the bus stop and you can drive back."

"Sure." She said, and got up, picking up the dirty paper towels and throwing them into the trash before she grabbed her coat, giving Colin one of her big sweaters, as she killed his with the daiquiri. They never had enough to get drunk, so driving was no issue. One Daiquiri each. Sarah only having a quarter of one this night, seeing as she lost the rest on her Playstation. "I'm driving, though. You had more than me."

"Fine."

§

Tifa pulled her arms in front of her face as she entered the portal, Cloud just behind her. Though he was gone from her senses and mind as soon as she entered the wormhole between worlds. She tried to scream, but the void sucked up the breath and pushed it back into her lungs at the same time, making it impossible to make a sound. Where was Cloud?

§

When Sarah got home she locked the door behind her, throwing her coat on the back of the chair by the door. She looked at the ruined Playstation in front of the TV; not really wanting to mess with it, she decided instead to take a shower. Without thinking further, she went straight to the bathroom, turning the water on and adjusting it to her preferred temperature.

Quickly removing her clothes, she stepped into the shower.

§

Cloud folded his arms in front of his chest, his head bending down to protect his face from whatever he might run into diving head first down the wormhole. Fortunately there was nothing in the way, just nothingness. One thought in the back of his mind was that he was going to have one hell of a headache once he got out of this trip. He knew, logically, that Tifa was only a few feet ahead of him, but she was gone. All he could see was a void. It was better if he just closed his eyes…

§

Sarah stepped out of the shower, wrapping her dripping hair in a towel. A weird ringing was in her ears, reminding her faintly of the tinnitus she had as a child, but not quite the same. It disoriented her only slightly as she grabbed a towel for her body, stepping out of the bathroom even as she wrapped up.

Suddenly the buzzing ring escalated to an ear-piercing whistle, blinding her with its sound. The roof over the middle of the living room caved in as a beam of sickly blue light shot through it. She screamed as wood and shingles fell through into the room around a large red pile that landed on her living room floor, spying what it was when the dust cleared.

It was a man.

Not only that, it was a very familiar looking man, curled up and covering his face with his brass arm, semi-unconscious from the fall.

Sarah crouched on the floor, the towel clutched to her chest as she tried to cover everything she possibly could, staring at the now stirring form of the red-mantled gunslinger on the floor several feet away.

"Nnn..." Vincent groaned, slowly lifting his head, his red eyes falling on the naked woman hiding herself in the towel, staring at him. For a moment his brain didn't make the connection, and his eyes narrowed in confusion as he tried to figure out how he got to be laying on the ground in front of a naked woman.

Or girl. She didn't look that old. She had an innocent youth about her as she stared at him with shocked and terrified cloudy gray blue eyes. Or eye, since one was covered by the towel that was slowly slipping off of her head, revealing some of her short layered hair, a few long pieces sticking out to frame her face. She looked like a bedraggled mess.

"Where am I?" he asked calmly, his mind still not fully comprehending his situation.

"In my… living room?" she said, then the realization struck her, at the very least, "MY CEILING!!!" she screeched, causing the ebon haired man to lower his head again, his ears ringing from her scream.

§

Tifa stood slowly, her head still spinning from the flight between worlds. "Cloud? Cloud!" she called out, one hand to her head, the other stretched out to keep her balance. She heard a groan to her right, and ran through what looked like a neighborhood alleyway toward the groan. She found Cloud a few feet away from the opposite end of the alley, kneeling on his knees and holding his head.

"Ooh… I knew I'd get a headache from that…" he muttered, looking up at Tifa as she neared him. "You all right? Where's Vincent?"

She shrugged, "No clue where he is. It looks like the exit was slightly random, but not by much, we could probably find him. And I'm okay. My head's spinning still, but I should be fine."

As Cloud stood she gave him a reassuring smile, but that was quickly cut off by a piercing scream: "MY CEILING!!!" in the house nearby. They both looked that way, then ran toward the screams, figuring that would be the most likely place to start looking for Vincent.

_A/N: Look! Finally they meet! gasp You'll find out where Cloud and Tifa fall soon, though you can trust that they're not too far away. Of course, Namani's long gone by now, seeing as he's probably traveled like this before and knew how to prepare. So he's now hiding somewhere in Portland or somewhere in Oregon._

_Vincent: -rubs head- ooouch…Is your floor carpeted?_

_Nope! Hard wood! Bwaha!_


End file.
